Italy launches space weather database

Tor Vergata development to help predict damaging solar storms

(ANSA) - Rome, February 16 - Scientists presented Italy's
first space weather database at the Italian Space Agency in Rome
on Tuesday.
The instrument developed by the department of physics at
Tor Vergata university is intended to help forecast potentially
damaging solar storms.
"Solar activity is not constant, but can vary suddenly,
sending large quantities of particles towards Earth," physicist
Francesco Berrilli said.
"This represents a real danger for our technology that
cannot be avoided, but which can be contained if we learn to
forecast it," he explained.
The Tor Vergata space weather database aims to collate
incoming telescope and satellite data and simplify it for use by
interested parties, for example pilots on flight routes around
the poles.